A Rose By Any Other Name
by annoyimi
Summary: Takes place after The Ice Man Job. Sophie is in London and Nate hunts her down looking for the answer to his question..."What is Sophie's real name?"


Twelve solemn rings of an antique grandfather clock struck the midnight hour. The night was intoxicated with the perfume of a blossoming autumn; crisp and spiced to perfection. Sophie leaned her shoulder against the pane of her window; her legs tucked into her as she sat upon her window seat overlooking the illuminated city of London. Her thoughts seemed tangled in her mind and she struggled to unweave the mess that once was she. She deeply inhaled and pressed her cheek into the frigid glass, her wide chocolate eyes gazed up at the Heavens; that night the moon was swollen and framed in sapphire, its alabaster light seemed to embrace Sophie's soul. She had forgotten who she truly was; and that broke her spirit, for she had a real name and identity one time in her life. So lost was she that she didn't even sense a second presence lurking in the shadows of her loft apartment.

His eyes were mesmerized upon the vision before him; her raw beauty so deeply impaled his heart. How badly she stung him when she left him that day in the graveyard; he swore he heard his heart shatter that moment. It was exactly three months since she left the team...and him. Nate's heart was a mixture of sympathy and pain; for he knew her struggle all too well and understood her reasons for needing time away. For that he could relate; for there was a time when he too was drowning in his own self and wanted nothing more than to drink himself into oblivion; but she was there. It was Sophie who picked up the torn, broken mess of a man and rescued him. He would admit that he was greedy; for he yearned to have her by his side every waking moment. He needed her just as much as he wanted her; she had become a life-force and he seemed to be suffocating without her. He watched her as she silently cried; clear, glistening tears cascading down soft, ivory flesh. She closed her eyes for a moment and exhaled a deep sigh.

It was his strong will that forced him to emerge from the shadows. Like a phantom, he silently came upon her; his presence obscured the streaming light. Catching his reflection in the glass, she gasped; though not in fear. Her head whipped around; afraid that she was going to see just the emptiness of the night; but instead he stood before her, his hands shoved in his pockets and a sheepish expression crossing his face.

"Hello, Sophie." His eyes casted down towards the floorboards, he became aware of himself at that moment and suddenly was drowned in shyness.

Sophie stood up; her plump lips formed a melancholy smile. Immediately she embraced him, wrapping her arms around him and soaking up his warmth.

"Nate, what are you doing here?" She stepped back, gazing into his cobalt eyes.

"I....I." He paused for a moment, trying to recollect his thoughts. "It's just that it's been over three weeks and I didn't hear from you. I got worried."

She laughed softly; a flirty grin crossed her face. "So you felt you had to fly across the ocean, hunt me down, break into my apartment, just to make sure I was okay? You missed me that bad?"

" Kind of like the old days." He chuckled softly. "Well, the rest of the team was worried sick and..." She cut him off, her smile widened slightly.

"Oh! How are the rest of them? I hope they didn't kill each other by now."

" Um, they are fine. Parker is worried. She thought you might have hooked up with another team, but I told her I will never allow my best grifter do that. God only knows how we have been surviving without you."

Sophie nodded, her smile replaced by a thoughtful expression. She turned away and gazed out the window, wrapping her arms around herself. She took a moment to watch Nate watch her through the glass; their eyes communicating through their reflections. "Nate, I need more time." her voice broke their silent barrier, and broke his heart again.

"I know, Sophie." He wanted to wrap his arms around her waist and kiss the exposed flesh of her neck; but instead he stepped aside away from her gaze through the window.

"Did you know that I grew up around her?" Sophie tilted her head towards the left. "The real me that is."

"No, no I did not know."

"Yes, not even a block from here. It was one of the poor sections of London; the Murdock Slums they were called. We were dirt poor, practically starved; but I had a name then."

Sophie fixated upon her image in the window; slowly her reflection began to shift and twist until what stood before her was not the woman she was, but the image of a child she use to be.

She continued to look down that way. Her mind was traveling down the dark streets; back to the one-bedroom apartment that smelt like dog urine and spoiled milk. It was a place where an alcoholic mother abandoned her and her five siblings every night just so she could go poison her body in order to escape her reality. Tears began to swell in her eyes; it was time to tell him.

"My mother was a stone-cold drunk and drug abuser. By the time we came to the Murdock Slums we have already been evicted from four other apartments that year. I was only thirteen years old." She choked on her words but quickly inhaled a deep breath and continued on before Nate could interfere. "I was neither a child nor a woman, but already the caregiver and provider for my family. It was my fate to pick up the shattered pieces and mend them the best I could into a family. Every day was an up-hill battle to make sure my siblings had food in their bellies and clothes on their backs."

She collapsed upon the window-seat again, shoving her hands in between her knees. Tears trickled down her face and splashed upon the tops of her thighs. Without instruction, Nate silently took a seat near her. He understood her need to relieve herself of this misery and did not wish to break her confession with any curiosity or question he might hold.

"Every day I was the subject to my mother's drunken outburst. She had stopped calling me by my real name and instead referred to me as "Girl" or "Bitch". I would keep my siblings secured while I endured the beatings or the venomous tongue lashings that she provided before storming out...leaving us with nothing. When I wasn't suffering with my mother, I was scouring the streets trying to get food and clothes for my brother and sisters. That is when I began to change. I would go to different shops, giving them different names and stories; anything to arise sympathy in the shopkeepers. I was smart though and never used the same tricks on each of them. For some odd reason, I had this gift that worked to my advantage and I was able to provide for them. I fell in love with the game, and soon it stopped becoming a game and actually became a part of the real me. I began not only creating actual lives for my characters; but trying to live them. By the time I was fifteen, I had perfected my talent as best as I could and I ended up leaving my family and traveling with one of the world's best grifter teams; Madame Devereaux's Traveling Theater. That is when I changed into Sophie; which is actually the closest identity I have to my real self."

Slowly she turned her head towards Nate. She needed to see his reaction, but his eyes were casted towards the darkness and he did not acknowledge her pause. She felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment; instead she cleared her throat and continued; she was use to the dead silent reaction.

"Agatha Devereaux was the one who nurtured me and helped me become the woman I am today. She became the mother I desperately yearned for. She made sure I became an educated, respected woman who traveled in the finest of societies and had immense passion and knowledge for theater and art. Plus I became a damn good grifter. By the time I left the traveling theater four years later, I had enough money to buy whatever I wanted; and it helped my siblings get the hell out of the slums and my horrible mother."

Then there was complete silence between them; a sickening silence that seemed to twist through Sophie's spine, cursing her for her raw expression of emotions. Her hands trembled and finally not being able to listen to silence any longer she made a plea towards Nate. "Please say something, anything."

All he wanted to do was apologize. Such shame he felt for making her suffer again with his own issue with alcoholism. But at that moment, all he could think about was one thing; that little piece of her that completed the actual person she was.

With a curious expression creeping around the corners of his lips he spoke; his voice cracked slightly. "Before the names of "Girl" and "Bitch" were bestowed upon you; what did your mother use to call you?"

Behind the tears, Sophie laughed. Her voice cleared and stared into his eyes. She was about to speak a name she hasn't used in over 25 years and it scared her immensely. He held her within his eyes; and she knew that it was safe. "Rose. My name is Rose Willington."

Nate chuckled, whispering her name; allowing it to roll off his tongue. She caught his humor and pushed her hand against his shoulder. "What is so damn funny about my name?"

"Nothing." He shook his head still softly laughing. "Just I didn't see you as a Rose."

"Then what the hell do you think I was called?" Her eyes widened

shrugging his shoulders he looked up to the ceiling thinking. "Um, Brunhilda...Bertha, I don' know."

Sophie jumped up from her spot, her mouth hung open in shock. "BRUNHILDA! BERTHA! I look like a Brunhilda and a Bertha." She swung her arms in the air in disbelief, and then firmly planted them upon her head in such a dramatic motion.

Nate laughed with embarrassment. "What, I'm sorry I'm horrible with names."

"Utter disbelief that is what I am enduring at this moment, Nate." She laughed. "Aren't you a cheeky bastard!" She repeated the horrible names to herself, shaking her head and pacing slightly back and forth.

Nate stood up, catching her in his arms as she made a restless stride towards him. He caught her off guard, for she was shocked to find herself stopped. Silence again overwhelmed them; two souls became lost in each other's eyes. For once in his life Nate was not intoxicated by liqueur, but by the beauty that he held before him.  
Memories rushed back into his mind. The first moment they fell into each other's world, back in Paris. He remembered that electrifying sensation the second their eyes caught each other. It scared him then. He was told she was the enemy; he was ordered to hate her. He was scared because he was married, and he loved his wife; but for as hard as he tried he could never erase her visage from his mind. It took him a long time to be able to bottle up his emotions for Sophie; and now he felt the bottle explode into a million fragments. He decided that tonight the game of cat and mouse would end.

Sophie tilted her eyes and cocked her head to the side. She wore a gray tunic sweater that hung off her shoulder, exposing her bare flesh. Silken pieces of her dark hair tickled against the expose skin making Nate immensely aroused. Slowly she raised herself upon the bawls of her feet and whispered in a secretive, yet seductive voice. " You are to be the only soul on earth to know my secret. I hope you will not tell the others. I am Sophie, dead or alive, that is who I am...this is the real me."

Smiling, he nodded. " I promise. But...only if I get to call you Rose from time to time."

" Oh really?" Sophie's brow rose with curiosity. " Like when?"

Nate leaned in closer, his lips so close to her that her nerves tingled with teasing sensations. "Tonight." With that last word, he dipped down and pressed his lips to hers and this time she welcomed him. Instantly they melted into each other's embrace, each one drinking in the other one's soul.

He pressed her svelte body into his, gently lifting her slightly off the ground. His lips cascaded down her bare neck and shoulder. Sophie tilted her head back and slightly moaned from the overwhelming excitement. Their bodies interweaved; constricted and embraced until it seemed they were one formation of raw humanity. Eagerly, they pulled and tugged at clothing; hungry for the taste of bare flesh. Half clothed, Nate scooped Sophie up in his arms and carried her towards the bedroom.

The bedroom was dark except for the soft light of the moon filtering down through the open balcony window and scattering upon the floor. With their lips interlocked, Nate laid Sophie upon the cool, plush bed. Their hands fumbled with the remainder of their clothes, and in a flash of a moment they were completely naked; their bare bodies tingled with goose bumps from the cool breeze that enveloped them.

She lay sprawled upon the violet comforter and framed by the multiple pillows that accented her bed. His hands trailed down her ribs and towards her waist; he sat up for a moment needing to take in her essence. Gently he pressed his lips upon her body; his tongue stimulating her swollen nipples, his hand cupping and softly massaging her breast; the aroma of orange blossom enthralled his senses and he buried his face into the smoothness of her skin. Her fingers dug into his hair as she sat up to meet his lips. She desperately needed to taste him as he needed to taste her. Her own tongue drew kisses down his chest; his scent was delicious to her taste buds, the taste of cedar wood and the serene caress of the autumn air.

It was a wonderful eternity that flew by in seconds as they explored the wonders of each other's bodies. He pressed his body hard against her, allowing his full, swollen manhood to glide between her legs and to penetrate deep within her. An exhilarated moan sprung from her pursed, ruby lips as she spread her legs wider welcoming him to fill her body with intense pleasure. Her internal self was moist and warm, and it constricted and contracted around him further arousing his penis, urging it to go deeper within.

Their lovemaking was a slow pulsation at first, like the beginning sensations of a heartbeat; they began to learn the internal and external needs of their bodies. Soon the heartbeat picked up rhythm; and shifted into poundings of ancient drums and exotic movements. Sophie's legs coiled around Nate's waist pressing him deeper into her; their moans, though mere whispers in the wind, were chants of passion. Beads of salty sweat combined with moist kisses that each one planted upon skin, glimmered in the moonlight.

Intense vibrations roared through Nate's body bringing him and Sophie to their ultimate zenith of pleasure; and as he spilt himself into her, he bent his head down and softly whispered into her ear. " Rose"

Immediately he felt her body beneath him collapse in sheer happiness, and when he stared into her eyes, those twin pools of liquefied enchantment, he knew that he had regained everything he once thought lost. Fate had finally brought these two chaotic creatures swirling and crashing into each other's embrace; allowing them to begin life anew together.

Trickles of soft morning sunlight streamed into their bedroom and blessed their faces with comforting warmth. A bewildering night of fevered lovemaking, liberated conversation and senseless laughter and joking had left two exhausted bodies cuddled together in empyrean bliss. Outside, the city was bursting with life; people chatting, children laughing and a lone musician playing his violin. Nate rose slightly, allowing himself to soak in the morning light and the woken life outside. His fingers gently brushed strands of hair from Sophie's face exposing her cheek. Sophie's back was pressed against his chest, her head rested upon his open arm; her delicate fingers artistically traced invisible designs in the palm of his imprisoned hand. Nate was amused at her childish endeavor and planted a single kiss upon her bare shoulder.

" Do you know what?" His voice was so soft and inviting, with slight humor swirled throughout.

" What?" She questioned back, her curiosity becoming amused.

With his free hand he moved her body to face him. His fingers trailed down the frame of her face. " A rose by any other name does smell just as sweet; and is just as beautiful and enchanting even if she goes by the name of Sophie."

Sophie chuckled. " Or Brunhilda. Or Bertha."

They both laughed, pressing their faces towards each other. It was a wonderful start to a new day; and it felt like a rebirth into this world. For they were finally allowed to be together, despite all the neglect and abuse they had to endure alone; they knew that from then on they would fight these hardships side by side.

A week later, back at the headquarters, a single white rose in a thin ,pale pink vase was delivered with a note attached. Park received it; and after checking it for bombs or other threats, which she was disappointed that there were none, she place it upon the table and called Hardison and Elliot to view.

Once they were all together, Parker open the note. It said....

All is well here. We will be back in a week. Sending our love, do not get into trouble.

Sincerely,

Nate and Brunhilda


End file.
